Tried & Tested | Madeleine Shaw | Chickpea Flour Pizza

I’ve been noticing a growth in the health food industry lately, with new ingredients popping up left right and centre, and alternative options to the treats we’d normally get a slap on the wrist for, being launched every day. This isn’t such a bad thing though, as it’s no longer people drilling it into us that we need our 5 a day, but individuals being original and creative with their recipes to produce meals that are genuinely healthy without ditching the flavour.

Madeleine Shaw is one of those creative people; a qualified health food nutritionist whose #gettheglow ethos is that eating well will not just keep you looking good, but improve the way you think and feel too. An avid blogger of the recipes she designs, and exciting new foods she creates, she regularly shares her ideas and advice with the world so I thought I’d give one of them a go.

I chose this recipe for a couple of reasons – I’m always interested in seeing if something like a pizza can actually be made the healthy way and still taste great, as I’m sure a lot of you are sceptical too! The other selling point of this one, is that the ingredients list includes items that I’m sure I’ll use again, so no unnecessary purchases (I always seem to get left with some sort of futile ingredient from my more experimental recipes that stays in the cupboard for years).

So, this is another easy one to follow, and it really doesn’t take too long – there’s just a 30 minute resting period for the batter, but I used that as a great excuse to open up the bottle of wine I’d chosen to match with the food. With it being pizza, I opted for a classic Italian red, the Via Nova Merlot. I wanted an easy drinking wine that had some fruity flavours to play off the light tomato sauce on the base. The combination was definitely a winning one, and got me thinking that this would make a great plan for a Friday evening with friends. Everyone could bring a topping, so between you there would be plenty to choose from, and the Via Nova is a bargain by the case at just over £6.50 per bottle with free delivery, so the more the merrier!

Final recommendation – I used a sprinkling of Goat’s cheese as one of my toppings which tied together all of the flavours perfectly and added that extra element of gourmet pizza too!